Ministry lessons learned from the corporate world by Kevin Driscoll, OYYA I spent some time in the air during the weeks before and after Christmas (note how I avoided that tired “H” word): a trip with Lisa and Brett to the in-laws in No-Cal and a solo trip to Tampa to watch my Hawks in the Outback Bowl (curse those Conference USA officials). On the day I was to return home from Florida, I arrived at the airport in just enough time to get a standby seat, getting me home much earlier, but without a chance to stop by the newsstand to grab something decent to read on the plane. That leaves you with three options for fine airplane literature: read the safety card (that really gets the imagination going), the SkyMall catalog (who actually buys stuff from here, anyway?), or the in-flight magazine. I chose the lesser of the evils. It was a 3-hour flight, so I had time to kill, which means I carefully read all three Top 10 Steakhouses in America lists. I memorized the free beverage menu (Coke Zero is now featured on all Air Tran flights), considered having the OYYA logo placed on a watch, and learned that there is an often-overlooked array of cozy restaurants and boutique shoe shops in Birmingham, Michigan. Then the captain said we were only over Tennessee. That’s when I was forced to read the business articles. Now most of you know me: I’m not exactly suit-and-tie material, but having worked in the radio industry I can appreciate that there are many lessons to be learned in the corporate world that can be applied in ministry. It’s strange, because when I read this article, it didn’t jump off the page at first, but later it stuck with me. I really can’t even remember what the article was about—marketing something—but here is what the guy wrote (paraphrasing of course): “Today’s web-savvy consumers are information-rich and time poor.” I could start throwing some staggering statistics at you about teens and their usage of the internet and wireless communications, but if you work with teens even a little, these surveys would just confirm what you already know. Chances are you’ve probably had teens texting each other across the room during your sessions. And yet I still hear this amongst my peers in ministry (mostly outside of youth ministry): “I’m not really a computer person.” If you are in ministry with youth, and you do not have at least a basic understanding of the communication technologies utilized by today’s teen, you might as well be trying to run a restaurant without plates. Technology to teens is no longer about toys and gadgets: it is the vehicle that drives their lives, their interaction with others, their relationships, their understanding of the world. I’ve seen subtle signs here in the office. I get almost as many forms for diocesan programs printed off our website than the originals. Teens have said they know more about the programs because they checked out the website ahead of time. Inundated with marketers, musicians, responsibilities to home and family, television programs, IM, and yes, some homework sprinkled in, teens have little time to make a decision about how they will spend their time, but they know how to research those decisions. “Today’s web-savvy consumers are information-rich and time poor.” We are competing for our teens’ time and attention. If we do not change the way we “market” our ministries, we will be left behind. We have perhaps the best product ever created, but our consumers make choices, and if we fail to inform our consumers about the relevance of that product, well, we’ve left the candle under the bushel basket (Matthew 5:15). Not only must our marketing evolve to meet the needs of our consumers, so too must we take a closer look at the way we deliver our product. There used to be a time when you could just have a youth group night, and kids would just show up, regardless of what you actually did content-wise. I believe that is a foreign concept to today’s teen: “What is the theme? What is the title? Who is the presenter? What is that presenter’s bio? Is it a one-time event, or a long-term commitment? How is this youth group night relevant to my life?” I need to know the answers to these questions, because I make choices.” After all, you wouldn’t watch TV tonight, and just say, “I’ll watch CBS tonight. I have no idea what’s on, but I trust it will be something good.” We decide what we watch based on research (programming guides), and multi-media advertising, often days or weeks before the program airs. See where I’m going with this? This is just one attempt to interpret the realities of a very different culture, but it’s just an attempt. Folks, I’m a spry 33, and I admit sometimes I feel completely out of touch. Here’s another attempt: I thought I had a short attention span. Have you seen teens multitask online? With the MP3 player blasting on the headphones, and the TV on, they’ll have a research paper, and four or five different IM windows going on the screen, as they update their MySpace ’blog while they text another friend on the celphone. Simultaneously. (By the way, if I lost you during that sentence, you have some catching up to do!) And we wonder how we lose them 30 minutes into a catechetical session on the Trinity. Now if the three Persons of the Trinity each had a ’blog and a bio, they might get it. (Hey, there’s an idea for a youth group night…feel free to steal that one!) We church people have a tendency to be, well, let’s face it, kinda’ arrogant. “Why, we have the fullness of faith! We have within these walls the true presence of Christ! The answers are here! Why are you not here??” But the consistent image of Jesus woven throughout the Gospels is his ability to journey, wearing out his sandals to bring his teaching to the ears of those who would hear. I doubt he posted flyers reading “Jesus Preaches On Stuff Night, hope to see you there!” I don’t know if any of us can completely fathom the impact technology is having on this and future generations of youth. My fear, however, is that if we do not attempt to interpret the data and examine the implications, we have a 100% chance of falling deep into the crater that is a growing generation gap between the millennials and those of us who check our email a few times a day. We as a Church have been here before. The Church responded to the Enlightenment by rejecting advances in science and social philosophies by creating a fortress church, safe from the threat of the outside world. This created an “us vs. them” mentality that has never completely left the Catholic Church, or how we are treated by others. But Vatican II gave us Gaudium et spes—the Church in the Modern World—a call for all of us as Catholics to be in the world (serving humanity with our Gospel values) and not of the world (overcoming the inevitable speed bumps the Evil One puts in our way). John Paul II got it. Years ago, he described the internet as an appropriate means to evangelize young people. Nearly two years ago he referred to the "complex and difficult context in which young people live" that is characterized by new communication technologies that transform their relation with the world, with time and with others, and which mold their behavior. "This creates a culture of the ephemeral and immediate, which is not always favorable profundity, interior maturation, or moral discernment," he said. "However, the use of the new means of communication has an interest that no one can deny…I cannot but encourage the development of these instruments to serve the Gospel and to promote dialogue and communication." A new environment requires new strategies. Let’s pledge to make 2006 a year in which we borrow a page from corporate America and examine ways to better deliver our product to a new batch of consumers.
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